Frank Frink and Ed McCarthy

Origins of the Partnership

The partnership between Frank Frink and Ed McCarthy is forged in the aftermath of Frink's firing from W-M Corporation, where he had worked for fifteen years as a skilled metalworker specializing in forged Colt revolvers of the Frontier period. After Frink is dismissed for speaking out of turn to the factory's owner, Wyndam-Matson, he returns to collect his tools and finds McCarthy, the shop foreman, who tells him he was proud of what Frink said. McCarthy then proposes a radical idea: instead of seeking another job, Frink should go into business for himself, creating original, contemporary jewelry rather than copying the past. "Create a market," McCarthy insists, dismissing the prevailing wisdom that no one wants contemporary American work. The idea takes hold, and McCarthy reveals he has already drawn up designs for women's earrings and pendants, abstract pieces with flowing lines that stand in stark contrast to the historical artifacts that dominate the market.

Building the Business

Frink and McCarthy commit to the venture with remarkable speed and professionalism. They agree on a name, Edfrank Custom Jewelry, and set up a workshop in the basement of Frink's building, using the two thousand dollars they extract from Wyndam-Matson as a form of blackmail payment. They invest in a complete range of tools: a flex-cable machine, an arbor of grinding and polishing wheels, an oxyacetylene welding outfit, and superb jewelers' pliers from Germany and France. They buy semiprecious stones—baroque pearls, spinels, jade, and slivers of fire opal—and begin producing a variety of pieces: cuff bracelets in brass, copper, bronze, and hot-forged black iron; pendants of brass with silver ornamentation; silver earrings and pins. Their quality control is exacting; any piece with a wire brush scratch or a spot of fire color is returned to the shop. They even make their own business cards, printing their name in red with a carved art-gun eraser and a children's toy rotary printing set, on high-quality Christmas-card paper. The result, they believe, shows no indication of the amateur.

The First Sales Attempt

The partnership's first major test comes when McCarthy, dressed in a new suit, white shirt, and tie, takes their wicker hamper of jewelry to Robert Childan's store, American Artistic Handcrafts Inc., on Montgomery Street. Frink cannot go himself because Childan would recognize him as the man who posed as an admiral's gentleman in an earlier scheme. McCarthy's presentation is awkward; he fumbles with his display boards and speaks in a strangled voice, but Childan, seeing an opportunity, offers to take the pieces on consignment rather than buying them outright. McCarthy, exhausted and unable to resist, agrees, leaving many of their best pieces with Childan with no guarantee of payment. When he returns to the truck, Frink is incredulous: "You let him?" McCarthy can only say, "I don't know how come." The two men sit silently in the truck, the failure of their first real sales attempt hanging over them.

The Struggle and Dissolution

Despite the setback, Frink and McCarthy continue to produce jewelry, but the market does not respond. They visit five retail shops in all, and only Childan takes anything, and that on consignment. The pieces pile up around them in the basement workshop. Frink becomes increasingly discouraged, telling McCarthy, "We're pouring money in for nothing." McCarthy tries to keep him going, insisting they have only visited a few stores, but Frink sees the trend: "We can't sell anything. Made or unmade." The partnership begins to fray. Frink suggests McCarthy buy him out for six hundred dollars; McCarthy refuses, offering instead to split everything. They agree to try three more stores before giving up. The tension is broken only by Frink's arrest on a bunco charge, stemming from Childan's complaint about the fake admiral incident. Frink is held for the German consul, but is unexpectedly released, a miracle he cannot explain. When he returns to the workshop, McCarthy is eating his dinner at the bench, and the two men resume their work in silence, Frink picking up a handful of half-completed silver segments and beginning to polish them. The partnership, though battered, survives, but the dream of Edfrank Custom Jewelry as a successful enterprise has effectively ended.